SGA: The Return 2 Pegasus
by ripplestone
Summary: Two thousand years after SG Atlantis returned to Earth, Pegasus Galaxy is no longer in the grip of the Wraith. One thousand years after his death, Todd's dream of a stable gene therapy removing Wraith hunger was finally realized. Now, after centuries of peace, a new threat is emerging from an old foe. Will Atlantis and her crew return from deep stasis on Earth to stop the Genii?
1. Chapter 1

**SGA: The Return 2 Pegasus**

Two thousand years after Stargate Atlantis returned to Earth, the Pegasus Galaxy is no longer in the grip of the Wraith. A thousand years after his death, Todd's dream of a stable gene therapy to remove the Wraith hunger was finally realised. Now, after centuries of peace, a new threat is emerging in the galaxy from an old foe. Todd's Wraith descendants and the Travelers, now allies, must find a way to combat the rise of the Genii, who are hellbent on finding a way of reanimating the Wraith hunger gene in a bid to build an indestructible army. The Genii want to reclaim their confederation of planets and ultimately rule the peaceful Pegasus galaxy starting with a military coup...

**One **

**'Leaving New Lantea' **

From her vantage point behind the pillars, Lilion watches as Torr pores over the ancient symbols on the temple walls and tries to stifle a yawn. He was taking forever to work out what they said. Some date this was turning out to be.

'I heard that yawn, Lili, you are noisier than one of those Jakbirds, I could hear you from half a mile away.'

'It's your Wraith intuition, you always know when I'm near.' Lilion slides out from her hiding place and peers over his shoulder at the old carvings. 'You know, you are never going to make out what those symbols mean, there is no such thing as a lost city! It is just a folk legend, Atlantis doesn't exist. Why you waste your time scratching around in the dirt for... bits of old rocks, I don't know.'

'It's called archaeology and I'm _not _scratching around, I'm trying to decipher this frieze of...'

'Enough...It's so boring! When you asked me to come with you to.. what's this planet called?'

'New Lantea.'

'New Lantea, I thought you meant... well...Not _this_ anyway!'

'And I thought you said you were looking for a chance to try out some modifications to your dart. This trip seemed like a way for you to do that, while I get to work on this dig site.' Torr gently brushes away the dust from a piece of fallen masonry.

'Yes, I know but... I just thought you and I...' Lilion stamps her foot in exasperation at his indifference to her and sighs.

'Look, this inscription mentions a wreck... a Wraith wreck on the ocean floor... '

'_Fascinating_.'

'… and why were you sneaking up on me, Lili?' Lilion smiles as Torr turns and draws himself up to his full height, leaning over her. 'What are you up to?'

'This!'

Before Torr can move Lili slips an arm around his waist and, with a mischievous hug, activates the Wraith ray from the remote device she has hidden in her palm. In a second, the dart, hovering above the ruins activates its beam and sweeps the two of them up into the cockpit, before Torr can struggle from her embrace.

'LILI! What did you do? How did we..?'

Lili laughs at Torr's confusion. 'Relax, I've modified the ray to transport us, not into storage but into the cockpit, remotely!' She waves her palm at him to show him the remote device, careful to keep at arm's length from him. 'So, should we ever need a quick getaway, we can!'

'A quick getaway?'

'You never know when it will be useful. '

'Just get me back to the dig site, Lili and enough of your Traveler tricks.'

'Wait I can do better than that! Where's this wreck?'

'I _don't_ _know! _You beamed me on board before I had a chance to...' Before Torr can finish his sentence, they were back in the ruins.

'Arghh! _LILION_, you'll be the death of me! Now, sit there, do not touch anything... and give me that remote! Why do you need a remote anyway... is this in a bid to make it into the fleet? Lili, it's not because you are thinking of joining the fleet is it?'

'The Genii are forging new allies among the outlying planets... and crushing those communities that remain defiant. You've heard the rumours, I'm not going to sit around and watch the whole of Pegasus fall into their hands.'

'The galaxy is not going to fall into their hands. The alliance between our people, the Wraith and Traveler is strong, it will take more than the Genii to overthrow a thousand years of peace.'

'That's just it, Torr. They are more than just the Genii, I heard a report the other day that they have found a way to make Athosian fighters turn against each other..'

'Just rumours. There have always been unrest and fighting on the outlying allied worlds. You have a genius for ship design and repair, Lili, don't waste it on fighting other people's battles.'

'Some day soon, if we don't make a stand, it will be _our_ battle. The fleet needs better ships, I can make a difference...' Lili sighs, seeing Torr is engrossed again in the stone frieze and has stopped listening to her. She wanders further away and finds a perch on a broken pillar. Torr was so wrapped up in his search for lost cities and ancient artefacts, he was blind to the very real dangers their future might hold.

'Lili look... _Hey, Lilion, where are you?_... look! I've got it! This tells of a great battle fought here and of a... hive ship, torn in two and sent plunging into the sea, the final resting place of the great ancestor, Todd... this is it! Listen...' Torr traces finger over the symbols on the frieze..' This...place, or spot... commemorates the Battle of something.. , and the last resting place, or spot... of the Wraith Hive Ship deep in the Sea of Atlantis... A_tlantis_! I told you it was real... '

'Great. Does it say where this Atlantis is?'

'No. but it does give coordinates for where the Hive ship lies.'

'Let's see?' Lili glances at the Wraith hieroglyphs Torr is pointing to but is unable to read them. 'Can you programme that into the dart's navigation system?'

'Yes, but it's under the ocean.'

'That's OK, the dart will withstand the water pressure.'

'It will? Are you sure?'

'Yes, I'm sure. Like I said, I've made some modifications.'

Deep below the surface of the ocean on New Lantea, the broken hive ship hibernates, protecting it's core functioning for one final act. As Lili's dart slips below the silver waves above, deep in the biocore of the ship a programme detects a wraith ship approaching and fires up its neurons to transfer an ancient holographic bioscan over to the dart.

On board the dart Torr and Lili peer through the scanner into the deep ocean, trying to pinpoint the broken hive ship. Just as the rotting hulk looms into view, an alarm sounds in the cockpit and all the systems start to malfunction.

'What the? What just happened?' Torr shouts to be heard over the siren as Lili battles to try and regain control of the dart.

'I don't know! Something has triggered a chain reaction in the main bio-computers... _it's overriding everything...I can't get control!_'

_'At least try and turn the alarms off...'_ Torr freezes mid-sentence suddenly very aware of a new presence on board the dart. He turns round in his seat to find the Wraith figure of Todd standing behind him. Beside him Lili turns to see what he is staring at and finds an ancestral Wraith, the very image of all those childhood Traveler horror stories she used to read, reaching out with his feeding hand towards Torr and she draws her blast gun, firing without hesitation before Torr can stop her.

_'NO!' _But Torr is too late, the blast roars through the Wraith, leaving it unscathed and rips a small hole in the side of the dart, letting the cold ocean water pour in.

_'It's a projection! It's not real Lili, what have you done! The dart!'_

Lili stares in shock at the hologram of the Wraith. 'What do you mean not real? It looks real!'

'It's a holographic projection, probably beamed on board automatically from the hive ship. Lili, concentrate, we've got to regain control of the dart...' Torr slams his hands in frustration on the control panel and at least the alarms stop. 'The water, Lili, how do we stop the water!'

Lili finally stops staring at the Wraith and takes stock of the situation. The hole in the Dart was too big to repair in time, the water is freezing and the temperature is dropping rapidly, they would die of hypothermia long before they either drowned or the hull collapsed from the pressure change.

'We can't stop the water, I can't repair it in time, Torr, we need to get out of here!'

'What? How!'

'The remote, where's my remote?'

Torr thinks for a moment and then starts patting his various jacket pockets.

'Please tell me you didn't leave the remote at the temple?' Lili starts to help him look.

'No! Here, look, no that's not it... hurry! Ah, that's it!' Torr pulls the remote out of an inside pocket.

'Can we beam out to the surface?' He hands the remote to Lili noting her hands shaking from the freezing cold water. He's not much better, already his legs are beginning to feel numb as the water swirls about their knees.

'No, its only one way... transports _into_ the dart... but if I can modify it in time I can create a field around the whole ship and move us completely out of the water... how deep are we?..'

'I don't know, a couple of kilometers maybe three?' Torr makes a rough guess at how deep the dart may be by now.

'OK... just a moment... nearly there.'

'Hurry, the walls are starting to buckle.' Torr shivers as a sickening crushing sound can be heard from inside the dart's cockpit.

'Nearly there... here, move closer, just in case I don't get all of the dart...'

'Wait...What do you mean, don't get all of the dart?' But it is too late, Lilion flings her arms around Torr and shuts her eyes as she presses the remote just as the water starts to violently cascade through the breached hull.

The ghost ship Destiny drops out of Faster Than Light (FTL) speed at the pre-programmed gate signature point, still on its journey set in motion millennia ago. But, if the small planet below once housed a Stargate, it registered no sign of it now and the ship's computers fire up the FTL drive once more, leaping out of the Pegasus galaxy and back towards its next and final destination, Earth.

For a moment Torr and Lilion cling to each other as the ocean roars around them and the light of the dart ray engulfs them. Then, there is nothing, only silence and darkness and the sound of... the sound of water dripping. Torr cautiously opens his eyes and tries to adjust to the low light levels. They are still in the dart but the hologram of the ancestral Wraith is gone. All around water is dripping from the walls and somehow draining away. He gently lets go of Lili and reaches into a pocket for a light-stick, holding it aloft to light up the cockpit.

'Did we make it?' Lilion asks, shivering.

'It would seem so but, I don't know how. All the systems are out. We are either dead or...'

'Or... it's dead isn't it?_ I've killed us! I've killed my dart!'_

'Stop being so dramatic and get a grip, honestly, sometimes it's hard to imagine that you are actually the female of your species!... I was going to say, we are either dead or your quick getaway worked.. can you hear that?'

From outside the hull of the dart they can hear a deep rumble, like an engine firing up.

'Where's the water gone?' Lili guides the light-stick in Torr's hand towards the back of the dart cockpit to where she blasted through the hull but instead of the shattered hull there is the smooth surface of a metal bulkhead. 'Where did that come from?'

'It's cut right through the dart.' Torr runs a hand across the smooth surface. ' Look there! That's our way out.' He points to the base of the bulkhead to where a large, jagged tear in the dart hull is letting the water drain out.

Lilion and Torr stand in the empty viewing gallery of Destiny. Behind them, the portion of the dart Lilion managed to beam out of the ocean has materialised halfway through the bulkhead wall. The floor is awash with water but it is the view through the gallery windows that has them mesmerised.

'What is that?' Torr stares at the strange lines of light rushing past.

For a moment Lilion simply stares in wonder and then she answers his question.

'Light lines, they're light lines... we're in the space in between! I've read about this phenomenon... '

'Are we above New Lantea? Just how high did you transport us... The space in between what? The planets? ' Torr turns his attention to searching for a way out of the gallery.

'No...no, not between planets between galaxies. We are travelling between galaxies! This ship is travelling at faster than light speed (FTL) ...these lights are us slipping through the space in between the universal fabric of space and time.'

'You're sure about that?'

'Yes, I'm sure! While we were at University and you were deciphering old scrolls and rummaging round old ruins, I was studying space propulsion, hydraulic engineering, bio-mechanical engineering and astrophysics... These are light lines!'

'And this is a door that won't open!'

'This ship must have jumped out of FTL above the surface of New Lantea as I transported us out of the ocean. We literally beamed on board it.. this is incredible!'

'Yes and this door is stuck!' Torr raises his voice. 'Do you think you could give me a hand here?'

But the door remains firmly sealed, Lilion and Torr are trapped in the viewing gallery on board a ship travelling at FTL, leaving New Lantea and the Pegasus galaxy far behind.


	2. Chapter 2

**Two**

**A Blast from the Past**

'You know, if you move out of the way, I can try blasting it, see if that will open it.' Lilion leans against the door and watches as Torr tries to prise open one of the panels next to the it.

'That didn't work out so well for us last time you used your blast gun. We don't know what, or who's behind this door.'

'Just saying, it'd be quicker to blast it.'

Torr sighs and straightens up from his task, Lilion is right but he can't bring himself to let her fire away at what he hopes is a ship of the Ancients. He leans against the door next to her, wondering what they can do when a soft whirring sound can be heard behind them. Before either can catch their balance the door slides open and deposits them on the floor in a heap.

'Ouch! Get off me!' Lilion shoves Torr off her as they scramble to their feet and look around. They are in a long corridor, lit intermittently with the dim glow of emergency lighting, stretching off in both directions.

'Did our weight open it?' Torr asks, running a hand over the open door frame, looking for an external control panel.

'Does it matter? It opened, come on! Leave that alone, let's see if we can find the navigation bridge!'

'Wait! Which way?' Torr stares in both directions, uncertain which way to go but Lilion is already heading up the corridor, trying each door she passes.

Deep in the heart of Destiny, in her core processors, a new programme is running. It is not an Ancient code but a Wraith code for a holographic bioscan. As it poses no threat, the ship allows it to work it's way through her systems. Todd can't believe his luck, not only has he been rescued from the hive ship, he is now in embedded in a ship of such sophistication it can only be one of the Ancients fleet. He had heard rumours about a ship called Destiny but never in a million years believed he would one day be travelling on it, even if it was only as a computer programme. He can hear voices, the voices of the Wraith descendant and the Human who were on the dart. They needed the door open so he trips the door programme. He quickly locates them and sets about opening the doors, one by one in sequence, leading them towards the navigation bridge.

'Wait! Lili! Who's opening these doors?' Torr stumbles behind Lilion as she follows the path of open doors that Todd is leaving for them. 'We don't know the layout of the ship, we could be heading anywhere... it could be a trap!'

Lilion pauses, waiting for Torr to catch up.

'Even if it is a trap, we have no choice. This ship is deserted. We have no food or water with us and we are probably already out of the Pegasus galaxy, with no way back. See how many corners we have turned already?' Lilion points back down the corridor, ' More than enough places to have set an ambush. We were trapped in that viewing deck, why let us out of a sealed room if it is only to catch us again?'

Torr finds he cannot argue with her logic and smiles. 'At least stop rushing so quickly to get there! I can't keep up!'

'That's what you get for spending your days pouring over old scrolls instead of out in the real world. Do you good to get some exercise.' With that, Lilion sets off again at fast jog down the corridor, her hand lightly resting on her blast gun at her side. Behind her she can hear Torr groan and start jogging to catch up with her.

Around the next corner they find a room with a table and chairs and some kind of strange device with a set of small polished stones. As Torr enters the room, he is just in time to see Lilion reach out and touch one of them before he can warn her not to.

The holographic projector protocol runs the length and breadth of the ship, all Todd has to do is upload himself into the software and he can project himself to any part of the ship. He checks on the progress of the two passengers and notices they have stopped in an ante room leading to the bridge. He would take the opportunity to introduce himself to them in person. Todd materialises in front of the Torr and Lilion just as Lilion sits in one of the chairs and touches the ancient artefact.

For a moment Lilion feels as though she is travelling at great speed, being transported across a vast distance and then she is engulfed by a deep dreamless sleep.

'Lilion! Stop!' But Torr is too late. For a moment Lili slumps back in her seat as she holds the stone and then she shakes herself, as though waking up and looks around, leaping to her feet.

In that instant Torr is suddenly aware of another presence, one he recognises from before and turns to find the hologram of Todd standing nearby. Before he can say anything Lilion pulls her blast gun level and fires directly at the ancestral Wraith. The blast travels through the image without damaging it and starts to scour a deep burn on the wall opposite.

'Please tell this human to stop firing at me! This is the second time she has done so!' Todd glowers at Lilion.

'Lili! Please! It's a hologram, you can't kill him! _Please _stop shooting at everything, you'll damage the ship!' Torr reaches for Lilion's bast gun but instead finds the gun levelled at him instead.

'Back off! Wraith.. who are you? Who is this Todd?' The voice is Lilion's but he manner and attitude is a stranger to Torr, he steps back and raises his hands, completely nonplussed by the situation.

'How do you know my name, human?' Todd is surprised to find her call him by his name.

'What do you mean, how do I know your name, I read the reports, I've seen your picture. Who is this, he looks like a descendant of Michael's...'

The reference to both Todd and Michael, the most well known of the Ancestral Wraiths causes Torr to interrupt.

'You're Todd? I am a descendant of yours, my name is Torr, I'm an archaeologist... we found your hive ship, on New Lantea, we are searching for the lost city of Atlantis...'

'A descendent of mine? How many generations. I see you have no feeding hand?'

'Well, no, of course not... the hunger was cured with gene therapy about a thousand years after you...you...' Torr trails off, unsure how to break the news.

'I have been dead for a thousand years?'

'Well, more like two thousand years... the hive ship must have uploaded you onto the dart and then... I'm not sure how you are here now but...'

'Quiet the pair of you! You are telling me that this isn't Todd? And who else is with you?'

'No, he's a hologram, a bioscan projection...It's a modification that hive ships had in order to transfer a Wraith leader to a different body in a catastrophic event...'

'Yes, yes he's quite right, I am a bioscan of Todd and I've uploaded myself into the systems here on Destiny.'

'There's no one else, just us..' Torr points at her. 'Just you and me.. Lilion?' Wondering if Lilion is suffering from some kind of memory loss. 'You can lower your gun now.'

Lilion turns and glances at her reflection in a nearby glass panel and laughs.

'You have used the communication stones! I am not Lilion. My name is Colonel David Telford of the United States Airforce and this is now _my_ ship! Move!' Telford waves the gun towards the door and marches Torr into the navigation bridge. 'Don't worry your companion is safe, back on Earth in deep sleep hibernation in my body with the rest of the Atlantis crew at Stargate Command. Over two thousand years... Destiny must be nearly home now!'

'Home?' Torr asks, trying to piece together what Telford is saying.

'He means Earth. Destiny is the last of the great ships of the Ancients, a ship sent out to map the Universe, it has been travelling for millennia on it's journey.' Todd follows Telford/Lilion and Torr into the bridge room. 'It must have stopped in the Pegasus galaxy because of Atlantis. Perhaps had the coordinates preprogrammed... I shall have to run through her data banks and find out...'

'We must have beamed on board with the Wraith ray just as the ship dropped out of FTL travel! This is extraordinary... what are you doing?' Torr tries to struggle out of Telford/Lilion's strong grasp.

'Securing my prisoner.' Telford/Lilion ties Torr to a nearby console.

'Why am I your prisoner?'

'You're a Wraith! I read the reports from Atlantis, the battles, the infighting. I know what you are all capable of.'

'What reports? We have no contact with this...Earth you are from! The Pegasus galaxy has no more battles. For a thousand years we have been at peace and we are certainly no threat to your home planet... what is he talking about Todd and _where _is Atlantis?'

'Well, last I remember, a very nasty piece of work called Michael, who was a Wraith, was trying to destroy their planet... but, that would have been a long time ago.. Atlantis returned to Earth to stop the attack and I... my body perished in the battle on New Lantea.'

'You're an Ancient from Atlantis? But how?' Torr asks Telford/Lilion but Todd interrupts.

'No, He's not an Ancient! He is a human descendant from Earth, some of them have the Ancient gene though and so can utilise Ancient technology, like this ship. Do you have the gene? Can you control this ship?' Todd moves up close to Telford/Lilion and stares into his eyes.

'He hasn't got the gene, I can tell. So, this ship is not yours it is, in fact... mine!' Todd accesses an electrical subsystem and routes an electric charge through the console Telford/Lilion is holding and knocks her out. Stunned, she falls to the floor, dropping the blast gun.

'Lilion!' But there is nothing Torr can do, his hands are tied. A few moments later Lilion starts to come round.

'Ow! My head... what happened?'

'You were electrocuted by the hologram programme of the ancestral Wraith, Todd. He's loaded himself up into the ship's systems.'

'What?!'

'It's a long story.'

'Where are we and why are you tied to that console, what's going on?' Lilion picks herself up from the floor and starts to untie Torr, he instinctively flinches, not sure whether she is Lilion or Telford.

'What? What's the matter?'

'You don't remember?'

'Well, one minute I was about to touch those weird stones and the next I'm in here.'

'They're Ancient technology, communication stones he called them. You swapped consciousness with someone on a planet called Earth, a Colonel Telford. He wanted the ship but you need some kind of gene from the Ancients to...'

'OK... stop! That is all way too much information. So, can that Wraith... Todd control the ship?'

'No, you have to have a special gene, from the Ancients.'

'So we can't control the ship?'

'I don't think so.'

'So we are stuck here?'

'Yes. This ship is going back to Earth.'

'And this Colonel Telford did he have the gene?'

'No.' Torr rubs his wrists and sighs. 'But, wherever your consciousness went, it's where the rest of the crew of Atlantis is. You really can't remember anything?'

'No. Sorry. Where's Todd?'

'I don't know, must have switched himself off. Probably didn't want you to blast him again.'

'Again?'

'Yes... again!'

As Torr and Lilion discuss the events triggered from using the communication stones, Destiny continues on her way, drawing nearer to her destination, Earth with each minute, slipping through the universe at faster than Light speed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Three**

**'Ghosts'**

Lilion glances up from the panel she is trying to weld back into place. Movement, something scurrying farther up the corridor, had caught her eye. But the corridor is empty. She shakes her head and returns to the task in hand. That is the second time today it had happened and several times over the last few weeks. Torr put it down to stress and the huge unknown nature of the ship. It isn't hard to imagine there are ghosts lurking in the shadowy recesses, not to mention the very nature of the ship, slowly falling apart on it's journey, creaking and groaning as systems fail and metal corrodes. Lilion is doing her best to try and patch the worst problems as Todd works his way through the systems, finding weaknesses and potential life threatening problems.

First life support, then food and now Lilion and Todd are trying to get the complex communication systems up and running all over the ship. The bulkhead light keeps flickering above her and sparks shower out, illuminating the floor. There! Surely that isn't imagination? Lilion's heart lurches as a shadow runs across her foot and up the corridor. That is definitely not a ghost. She had felt the weight of it across her boot. She shivers and renews her effort to finish the welding. The sooner they could talk to each other from separate parts of the ship, the better.

Torr stares in amazement at the holographic images unfolding all around him. The wealth of information gathered on Destiny's journey through the universe is immeasurable. It would take him all his years and then several lifetimes more to study it all. He pulls up another file with his hand and here he finds the details of a far distant planet forming, a molten, red ball with five silver moons and an unstable solar system swirling around it, planets colliding into each other in the outer reaches. He watches for a moment as the sun slowly builds into a supernova and then collapses in on itself, the solar system blinking out of existence, the entire life cycle of a planet condensed into a matter of seconds.

The days are beginning to stretch into weeks on board Destiny and their lives are falling into a routine. Once Todd rebooted the life support systems, Lilion had set to fixing and re-engineering as much as she could to make their lives on board as comfortable as possible, using Todd as her eyes and ears in the ship's software. Torr, feeling redundant, had managed to get Todd to access Destiny's huge universe mapping database. It is a treasure trove beyond his wildest dreams. Torr spends his days, unlocking maps, cataloguing civilisations and plotting the journey Destiny has taken. He is searching for information on this planet Earth that Colonel Telford had mentioned. It seems that Atlantis, and Torr smiles at the thought, is real and not a myth, his theory about the city had been right all along, a city ship built by the Ancients that these humans took back to Earth after a battle with the ancestral Wraith. Perhaps a sister ship to Destiny. Todd had given them as much information as he could about the city, the human crew and Earth but his bioscan is ancient and there are gaps in his memory. What Torr could do with is talking to Colonel Telford again to try and piece together just how far Earth and Atlantis is from the Pegasus galaxy and if Destiny is taking them there.

'So, there was definitely something there. I felt it! It ran right over my boot. There is something on board with us.' Lilion talks between stuffing spoonfuls of protein soup into her mouth. Torr watches as the green, gelatinous mix of carbohydrates, proteins and minerals drips from the spoon she is waving mid-air to underline her description of the mornings events.

'It is real, alive! Gives me the creeps. Anyway as soon as we can bioscan the whole ship, we can find out what it is. And then. I'm going to blast the horrible creepy thing out of existence!' she shudders at the thought of them and continues to eat. 'Not hungry?' Lilion points to Torr's untouched soup. 'It won't taste any better if you let if get cold.'

'Not hungry, no. Look, don't yell at me but I do think we are under a lot of stress and... the ship is old and...'

'_You still think I'm imagining them_!' Lilion can feel the anger rise at Torr's inability to believe her.

'No. No! That's not what I said Lili, I think you could projecting your very real concerns about our situation into manifestations of ghosts... _Lilion!_' Torr tries to dodge the spoonful of soup she flicks at him but is too late and it hits him squarely in the face.

'Lili, look. I'm sorry. I've just got other things on my mind. I want to try and talk to that Colonel Telford again.'

'For a start I am not imagining them, wait till one runs over _your_ foot and secondly, I don't think it's a good idea to let the Colonel take control of me again, not with the mood I'm in at the moment!'

'I thought I'd try using the communication stones.'

'You?'

'Yes but you can secure me so I can't cause any damage and we can get Todd to knock me out if the Colonel tries anything. I want to see if we can find out how far we are from Earth and how long before we get there.'

'OK but let me at least get the communication systems up and running first.' Lilion finishes her soup and points to Torr's bowl.

'Help yourself. I've had enough already.' Todd pushes his bowl over to her and watches as she tucks in.

Todd stands with his arms folded, watching as Lilion ties Torr to the chair next to the Ancient communications stones. She leaves just enough give on one arm for Torr to be able to touch the stones.

'Are you quite sure those bindings will hold?'

'Quite sure Todd. But, should it get out of hand, you can send another electrical charge to him?'

'As long as his hands are on the console, yes.'

''I am still here you know.' Torr tries to wrestle out of the bindings but only succeeds in tipping over the chair he is on.

'See, he can't get free.' As Lilion heaves Torr and the chair back into place, he notices something.

'Lili, where's your blast gun?'

'I've hidden it and Todd has securely locked it so I can't retrieve it under duress. I don't want Telford trying to snatch back the ship or taking permanent control over you!' She drops a swift kiss on his cheek. 'I don't want to be alone on this ship with just a load of ghosts for company. Ready?'

Lilion stands back with Todd and watches as Torr reaches out and holds one of the communication stones.

'So, you've worked out how to use them, I see.'

Lilion stares for a second or two at Torr, despite it physically being him, the personality is very different.

'Colonel Telford?'

'Yes, and you are?' Telford tries to loosen the bindings on his arms but it is no good, he is held captive in the chair.

'Lilion, I think you've already met Todd. Look, we have some questions we'd like you to answer.'

'Untie me and I'll happily answer them.'

'That isn't going to happen. We think this ship is heading for your planet Earth but we don't know the location of the planet in relation to the Pegasus galaxy, or what we will find when we get there...'

'Ask him how he has a communication stone if he is in some kind of stasis pod on Atlantis. ' Todd interrupts.

'Good question. I stole one and pocketed it before I went into stasis. Thought it might come in handy, in case...' Telford trails off.

'Stasis?' Lilion asks, not liking the way Telford has left his sentence unfinished.

'The Ancients had perfected the ability to suspend life in a deep state of hibernation for thousands of years called stasis.' Todd answers her question. 'To use the communication stones two people have to holding them at the same time.'

'So why are you in stasis on Atlantis?' Lilion moves round to face Colonel Telford face on, finding it hard to cope with Torr's body taken over and glad she'd locked away her blast gun.

'Because... because is a long story, untie me and I'll tell you.'

'No! Just answer the question or I'll get Todd to shock you back into stasis, permanently.'

Telford sighs and watches Lilion for a moment or two. 'That's my choice, answer your questions _or_ be sent back into stasis?'

'No, answer my questions and _then_ be sent back into stasis... alive.'

Telford smiles. 'You're tough! Are you Athosian?'

For a moment, Telford notices Lilion recoil slightly at the question, she didn't like being called Athosian. He notes her reaction and waits for her answer.

'I am a Traveler, not Athosian. So, do you want to return alive or dead to Atlantis?'

'OK! OK, you win. Fire away... with the questions that is!'

Lilion and Todd listen to the Colonel as he recounts the reason he is in a stasis pod with a communication stone.

'After Atlantis arrived back at Earth, it was business as usual, Stargate Command continued with it's missions through the Stargates to other galaxies. But, and I'm not completely sure about how it happened, there was some scientific discussion about it being the effect of two Stargates on one planet... a large planetoid sized object broke free from the Kuiper Belt and was launched into a direct trajectory with Earth. There wasn't enough time to destroy it. It hit Earth and exploded.. it was what they call an extinction event. We were able to sink the city of Atlantis to the bottom of the ocean with the remnants of Stargate Command and, using the stasis chambers, hoped to ride out the worst of the impact until we could re-float and try and rebuild what was left of civilisation. I guess, if this is two thousand years later, nothing was left to rebuild... I took the stone as a... as a potential way to get off the planet... to find help, if the worst...'

'So you wanted this ship to launch a rescue mission for Atlantis?' Todd paces up and down, evaluating the information.

'Yes! Yes. But it may be too late for Earth. I thought you were a real Wraith... you have to understand...'

'Well, I still don't trust you enough to untie you after last time.' Lilion sits down in front of Telford.

'But I think we are after the same thing. Getting to Atlantis. If you can tell us the location of Earth and how long before we get there, we will try and rescue you and your crew. Deal?'

Telford stares into Lilion's eyes and see there is no room for manoeuvre.

'Deal.'

'Good. Let's get to work. Todd can you project the star maps into this room?'

As Lilion, Todd and Colonel Telford start to work together to plot how far from Earth Destiny is, in it's dimly lit corridors and empty recesses, run small, shadowy creatures, growing in the sudden warmth as the ship comes back to life, while Torr, in suspended state of hibernation deep in the bowels of the submerged city of Atlantis, dreams the dreams of ghosts.


	4. Chapter 4

**Four**

**'Fritters'**

'Fritters!'

'What?' Torr jumps with the sudden interruption of Lilion's voice

'I've called them Fritters!'

'What are you talking about?' Torr pauses in his data cataloguing and, finding she's not in the room asks. 'And _where_ are you?'.

'I'm down in the galley. Todd's mapped out where the worst outbreaks are. They are, as far as he can tell, mutated versions of some kind of space rat, must have jumped aboard on one of their expeditions unnoticed. They seem to have lost their corporeal form and are now more like little clouds of gas.'

'I see you have the communication network up and running.'

'Yep, I have it set to open channel, so we can talk to each other at all times, including Todd.'

'So, these... Fritters... are they a problem?'

'No, the population seems to be stabilising, Todd's trying to analyse their composition, see what gases they contain but we don't think they are dangerous, just creepy.'

'Well, thank you for letting me know, I'm going to get back to my cataloguing if that's alright?'

'Oh, just one other thing. Take a look outside the window.'

'What? Lili___there are no windows!_'

'I'll meet you at the viewing deck!'

Torr groans. Sometimes Lilion could be the most infuriating person. He saves the file he is working on and stretches, he could do with a break and a walk would probably do him good anyway.

'Look!'

'At what?'

'The light lines!'

'Lilion, I've seen them before, have you dragged me all the way here..'

'They are slowing down. We are slowing down!'

Torr watches for a moment and realises Lilion is right. The light lines are slowing down, they are starting to drop out of FTL speed.

Destiny draws to a full stop at the edge of the Earth's solar system, her engines disengage and she settles into a stasis, waiting for a new mission from the Ancients. Todd materialises next to Torr and Lilion as they watch the Oort Cloud spin past them, far below the ship. 'Destiny has stopped at the closest point she can to the Earth without causing a catastrophic event with the convergence of two Stargates. We need to get the right eight symbol chevrons from Colonel Telford to dial up the gate on Atlantis.'

'Really? We don't have the information on board?' Torr turns Lilion, 'Guess what, your turn this time!' Lilion groans.

'No, Destiny would have had no reason to visit Atlantis on her journey.' Todd smiles at Lilion's obvious displeasure at the thought of being host to Telford again. 'It would be the last time you have to inhabit his weak human form. Once we have the chevron code we will gain control of Atlantis and you will be able to return to the Pegasus galaxy to crush the Genii uprising!'

'Hey! Hold on a minute! We are not here to take control of anything! I should have known leaving you two to work alone together would be bad news. Whatever she has told you Todd or whatever mad scheme she is plotting, it's just rumours! We are not at war... or about to start a war! This chance we have to explore Atlantis and return to Pegasus is extraordinary... a dream come true as an archaeologist, it is not about some military coup. Maybe letting Telford back into your head is a bad idea...'

'You are not at war with the Genii?' Todd looks piercingly at Lilion. Who simply shrugs her shoulders and refuses to make eye contact with him. 'We are not a war with them... yet.' she mutters under her breath and turns to leave the viewing deck.

'Hey! Where are you going?' Torr calls after her.

'Communication stones! Sooner we get the chevron codes, the quicker we get home.'

Torr pushes the last chevron and the three of them watch as the Stargate dials up the address. Telford had provided the chevron codes for Atlantis once he saw that Destiny had reached Earth's solar system without any need for further negotiation. Now Torr, Todd and Lilion stand in awe as the gate room fills with light and a roaring vortex spills out, almost engulfing them, then pulling back into a stable wormhole, scattering refraction patterns across the room. Torr turns to Lilion and smiles at her through the shielded screen of his spacesuit. 'Ready?'

'Ready.' Lilion squares her shoulders inside the cumbersome suit and grips her blast-gun firmly.

Then the two of them step forward and through the Stargate. For a moment the gate remains open and then the connection is cut and Torr finds himself alone on Destiny with only Fritters for company.

**War Council, Genii Training Base, Athos, Pegasus Galaxy**

'We are nearer our goal than ever before!'

'The Athosians have allowed themselves to become a leaderless, weak and scattered people over the centuries, making a few of them fight each other is hardly progress!'

'They are loyal to each other, the gene therapy _is_ stable.'

_'But it is not the hunger gene of the Ancestral Wraith!'_

'_The complex permutations required are completely beyond your comprehension!_ I have isolated the receptors and markers for behavioural control and this is the first step to...'

'_Enough! _I am sick of your infighting. This is getting us nowhere!' Commander-in-Chief Cowden slams a meaty fist down onto the table, making all the members of the War Council jump.

'If you and the Training Commander cannot agree, I can excuse you both from the Council...' The ugly sneer on CC Cowden's face is enough to strike terror into both Chief Scientist Scera and Training Commander Occut. Cowden continues, 'We are here to plan strategy not pander to your pathetic egos. We may well be able to push your research even further, Scera. Londic brings news of a break away Wraith contingency keen to revive what they believe to be their ancestral heritage. Londic has arranged a meeting to negotiate terms of a treaty between us, I would like you to be there. '

'How do we know we can trust these Wraith?' butts in Occut, angry at being rebuked so publicly.

'We don't. Which is why you are going too, with a team of your trained Athosian fighters, if you have to, use force to convince these Wraith that an alliance with us is in their best interest. You and Scera can finalise details of your expedition with Londic after this meeting. How far is the rendezvous?'

Councillor Londic's oily smile grates on Scera's nerves but she listens politely to him. Negotiators like him were a necessary evil. 'The meeting point is set on a small outpost past the reach of the Allied Planets.'

'In the Outlaw Zone?' Londic turns his smile on Scera and answers her question. 'Yes, my dear, well into the outlaw zone. Don't worry, you'll have Occut on hand to protect you.' His smile becomes a little wider. 'That is if he's not too busy trying to stab you in the back.'

Around the table, laughter breaks out and Scera can feel the heat rise to her face at Londic's put down of them both. She grits her teeth and smiles and takes the public humiliation, after all, very soon she would be alone with both Londic and Occut on a ship in the Outlaw Zone, plenty of time soon enough for revenge.

After the meeting CC Cowden retires to his chambers to review the meeting. He could sense the unrest in Scera, recognising her as a potential future threat. Sending her on this mission with Occut would take her down a peg or two and keep her out if his hair for a while. He runs over the intel about the breakaway Wraith Londic had provided. This could be the turning point they have been searching for. Pushing their research forward. A thought occurs to Cowden and he calls for Londic to join him for supper once the expedition plans have been finalised.

'Your daughter is quite a handful, Commander, I shall have to keep a close eye on her on the trip!' Londic takes a sip of the rich wine from a fine crystal goblet.

Cowden snorts and shovels another forkful of roasted game into his mouth before replying. '_She is not only _my daughter_ but also _key to the success of all our plans. You will do well to do more than keep an eye on her. If any misadventure befalls Scera, I shall hold you responsible, Councillor Londic.'

'Of course, I have only the _greatest _respect for you and your family, Sir. Now, what was it you wanted to discuss tonight?' Londic viciously spears a vegetable holds it up for inspection before precisely carving it in two.

'Tell me more about this Wraith leader. I don't want to be fighting on two sides. Will he accept that he will be under my command or is he planning to steal our work for his own use?'

'Tullar? I think he is an idealist and a fantasist. Believing in some Ancestral honour code, some myth of great Wraith legends! Did I tell you he is trying to recreate a hive ship?'

'A hive ship?'

'It was an Ancestral Wraith ship controlled by a Wraith Queen who could command thousands! Quite formidable I am told!'

Londic and Cowden talk late into the night, Londic embroidering tales of Ancestral Wraith hive ships and of the warriors they would soon be able to engineer to help rebuild the Genii Confederation.

**On board Destiny**

Todd stands at the viewing deck window watching the Oort cloud below as it spins out, light from the sun dimly picking out swirling dust clouds and meteorites. Here and there, Fritters run through his holograph, punching small holes as they pass through, disrupting the projection. Todd tries kicking one and then laughs as his foot sails straight through the amorphous creature, leaving it untouched. He wonders what Torr and Lilion have found on Atlantis and he thinks back to his previous life and the glorious days of the Wraith and the battles fought and lost and he wonders if any of his old adversaries and latterly, his friends, are in stasis on Atlantis.


	5. Chapter 5

**Five**

**'Through the Looking Glass'**

Torr and Lilion stand in in the gate room on Atlantis. The light filters slowly through the seawater beyond the windows, bathing the room in soft, blue patterns. Behind them the gate closes and they are left in the half-light of the sleeping city.

'The city was sunk in the deep ocean, where is this light coming from?' Lilion has no idea why she is whispering.

'Not my field of expertise... this is extraordinary! Look at this!' Torr takes the steps two at a time up to the main control room. 'This place is the find of a lifetime! Atlantis... it really exists!'

Lilion shivers and follows him. 'It's so cold. We need to find them before we get hypothermia!' She moves to a window and stares out into the water beyond. It is a heaving mass of bioluminescent phytoplankton, their blue energy filling the gate room with light.

' Find who?' Torr absentmindedly replies, running a hand over the desk he is standing in front of.

'Colonel Telford...The stasis chambers... _Come on,_ leave that for now, let's find him, help me with this door panel.'

Reluctantly Torr leaves the control room and follows after Lilion as she keys in the codes Telford had provided to open the doors to the stasis chambers. 'He was right, the power levels are at a bare minimum, enough to maintain life, we need to be very careful about accessing anything more than the doors at this stage. Let's hope he knows how to kick start this city back to life or we are pretty much stuck here.'

She jogs off down the corridors, leaving Torr to catch up with her.'Hey, wait! What do you mean, stuck here?' Torr asks in alarm, he hadn't given much thought to the return journey.

'Well, certainly not enough power to be able to dial up the gate. Let's hope this doesn't turn out to be a one way ticket, we might not be able to get back to Destiny...here, this should be the stasis room.' Lilion stops outside a door and knocks on it, leaning in to to listen for the echo.

'Well, I don't think Telford's going to open it for you, what are you doing?'

'Ssshh! Listening for an echo, I don't want to open the door to find the room is flooded.'

'Well, that didn't just stop you from opening door from the Control Room!'

'That had a window in it... well, here goes, stand back just in case.' Lilion keys in the code and the door slides open.

Inside the stasis room are twenty four stasis chambers, all occupied. The light filtering through the room from the corridor behind them is low and the room is filled with shadows and the sound of the stasis pods monitoring the bodies within. Torr and Lilion slowly approach the first chamber and look through its glass shielding at the body within. They both recoil in horror at the emaciated mummified body inside. 'I think it's safe to say, that this poor soul is not Telford!' Lilion shivers and moves to the next chamber.

'What happened?' Torr stares a the body for a moment.

'Who knows, after two thousand years in these chambers?...a stasis malfunction, an airborne disease in the bio filters...'

'Looks like the body has undergone a mummification of sorts, the Ancients used to have many techniques for preparation for burial... did you know that they used to remove the brains by forcing a ...'

'Stop! Don't want to hear. oh..no, that is revolting! This one's not Telford either, the body seems to have melted into something... just horrible!' Lilion moves on from window to window, looking through the glass. 'He must be here somewhere!'

'This is a woman... and there are two men as well on this side that all still look viable.'

'There are two women here and another man... two more, three. They've got name plates on their stasis suits... '

'Not many of them. Which is Telford?'

'This one.' Lilion reads the small name plate Torr is pointing to.

'OK, let's fire him up then!' Lilion presses the reanimation button on Telford's chamber and stands back, reaching for her blast gun and raising it in readiness.

'What are you doing, Lilion! You can't shoot him!'

'Just making sure he understands who is in charge.'

'He's been in stasis for two thousand years! He'll be in no fit state to do anything and technically, Atlantis is still his! We are guests, stop being so hostile. I'm going to wake these others too...'

The stasis chambers fire up and the slowly the bodies inside are bought out of deep molecular hibernation. Lilion and Tor watch and wait as inside, the eight remaining survivors on Earth slowly wake up from two thousand years of sleep. As the chambers open and the eight survivors stumble out, Torr steps forward to greet them while Lilion remains, armed and ready for any sudden attack.

'Colonel Telford, Colonel Carter, Lt. Colonel Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex, Dr McKay, Lt. Torren Emmagan, Dr. Freya PeaseGood ... I am Torr, a descendant of the Wraith you knew as Todd and this is Lilion, a Traveler, we are from The Pegasus Galaxy...'

'Let me guess, you come in peace, so why are you pointing a gun at us?' John Sheppard steps forwards from his stasis chamber rubbing his neck and stretching...' and why does my head hurt so much?'

'Yes, we do come in peace, Lilion just isn't sure _you_ will be peaceful, we have had trouble already with Colonel Telford.'

Samantha Carter steps forward, looking around. 'Is this all of us?' She moves over to the stasis chambers.

'I am sorry, Colonel Carter, the other chambers must have malfunctioned a very long time ago.'

'How have you had trouble with Colonel Telford, he was is stasis with us?' Dr. McKay asks, adding.. 'Oh, I feel dreadful... I think I am about to be sick... I feel as weak as a kitten... '

'Don't worry, just your body adjusting to the sudden change. I need to run medical checks on everyone.' Dr. Freya PeaseGood steps forward and then stops, grabbing at a nearby unit to steady herself.

'Colonel Telford took some communication stones with him into stasis, we have been able to use them to find out about Atlantis. Please you must all have your medical checks... you have been in stasis for so long. There will no doubt be a period of adjustment for your bodies...' Torr helps the Freya to her feet again.

'Just how long have we been in stasis?' Teyla asks.

Lilion sighs, removing the communication stones from Colonel Telford and checking him for weapons, replies. 'A couple of thousand years. Now, all of you, over to the wall. I want to check you all for weapons.'


	6. Chapter 6

**Six**

**'Lost and Found'**

Lilion moves quickly around the group, checking for concealed weapons while Torr tries to reason with her. 'Lilion, this is very unhelpful, these people are not a threat..' Lilion reaches Ronon Dax who immediately disarms her and takes her hostage.

'I told you they were untrustworthy, this one is as bad as Telford. _Let me go_!' Lilion is unable to free herself from Ronon's grasp.

'Look, we are not here to hurt you! We accidentally ended up on a ship travelling here, I'm an archaeologist and I was looking for Atlantis and...' Torr trails off as Ronon levels Lilion's blast gun at his head.

'He looks like Michael, I say we shoot him now and be done with it.' Ronon takes a step closer to Torr, still keeping a firm grip on Lilion.

'_No! _I am _not _Michael, Colonel Telford can confirm that I am a descendant of the ancestral Wraith Todd. We no longer have the hunger, the Pegasus Galaxy is a peaceful...'

'He's right about the length of time we've been in stasis.' Dr. Freya PeaseGood interrupts him. I've checked chambers, the data is undeniable, we've been in stasis for over two thousand years, that's why we are all feeling such terrible after effects ...'

Colonel Samantha Carter steps in between Ronon and Torr. 'Is any of this true, Colonel Telford?'

Telford looks up where he is leaning against the wall. 'Yes, as far as I know it's all true. We have been in stasis long enough for Destiny to return to Earth.'

'Enough now Ronon, put the gun down. Secure the two of them in a room and then let's start seeing if we can get Atlantis up and running.. and what is it with the lights?' Samantha walks briskly to the door and looks out of the window in the corridor at the bioluminescent water beyond, trying not to retch from the sudden movement.

'It looks like some kind of phytoplankton bloom.' Dr. McKay stares out at the water, leaning a hand against the wall to steady himself. 'I feel like I'm sea sick.. oh no!..'

'John, you and Freya are the only two with the ATA gene capable of rebooting the city. I want the two of you to go directly up to the control room and see if we can get life support and communications up and running, the quicker we can get Atlantis up to the surface the better, find out what has happened to the planet and why we weren't reawakened after the meteor strike. Rodney, you and Torren go with them, Torren keep your eyes open, we don't know how many of them there are. Ronon, you and Teyla secure these two, find some weapons and then start a search of the city, check they are alone. Colonel, you and I are going to have a little talk about those communication stones and exactly what you know up in my office.'

**The Outpost, Outlaw Zone, Pegasus Galaxy**

How long is this Wraith Tullar going to keep us waiting? Scera paces angrily up and down the space dock of the outpost. Nearby Occut puts a squad of his Athosian fighters through their paces. Londic smiles at her impatience. 'Tullar will be here in good time. A treaty with us will give him the resources he needs for his hive ship, look this is his dart now.'

They watch as a silvery Wraith dart lands on the space dock. Londic raises his eyebrows in surprise as Tullar and an unfamiliar Wraith climb out. 'It seems he has bought someone with him. Keep your anger in check, my dear Scera, your father will not forgive you if this treaty is not signed.'

'I am quite capable of acting as my father's emissary. It is you who should keep yourself in check, Londic, you are forgetting whose authority I am representing.'

'Apologies, Scera. I meant no disrespect to your father... Tullar, such a pleasure to meet again! May I introduce Commander-in-Chief Cowden's daughter, Scera, she is our Chief Scientist and this is?' Londic bows deeply to the female Wraith at Tullar's side.

'This will be our new Queen when you have perfected the gene therapy, Elliana this is the Genii wanting our help.'

'We are offering a very generous treaty Queen Elliana. As Tullar knows, we have much to offer in terms of resources...'

'And in return you want to experiment on us and then use us to gain power in the Pegasus Galaxy. Do not think your plans are opaque to me. I can see clearly what you think you will get from us. But I need your research to build warriors for my hive, you are the Chief Scientist?' Elliana turns to Scera.

'Yes, I am here on behalf of my father who wishes to help you build a great army. We have already started on ours, Occut has bought along some of our fighters to show you how far we have come with our gene manipulation...' Scera brushes Londic aside and guides the wraith Queen over to watch the grisly display Occut has prepared.

It seems the Wraith have an appetite for fighting, both Tullar and his queen watch with interest as the Athosian fighters set about killing each other without mercy. At the end of the display, once all the fighters are dead, Elliana turns to Scera. 'We will sign this treaty of yours, Genii. Your work is impressive. Now you will see our hive ship and continue your work there.'

'I would be delighted to see your hive ship Queen Elliana, unfortunately all my work is in my laboratories on Athos. I must return there to continue it. But, perhaps Londic can go with you, as a sign of our mutual respect for each other.' Scera smiles sweetly as she watches Londic turn puce at the thought of being held as collateral on the hive ship by the Wraith.

'Excellent, Tullar will return with you to oversee your work on Athos, he has with him my DNA samples that you require to continue your work. I am informed by Tullar that there is a very lively saloon on this outpost, you will be my guests and we will eat and drink there to cement this new working partnership and to a glorious future where the Wraith and the Genii Confederation have conquered the Pegasus galaxy. We may once have become weak and lost our way but soon our hunger will be found!'

**On Atlantis, in Colonel Samantha Carter's Office**

Samantha listens to Colonel David Telford's report on his visits via the communication stones to the Destiny with increasing sadness. If David is right, if they had been in stasis for thousands of years, what hope for humanity? Had the population of Earth been wiped out by the meteor? They knew it was always a possibility when they signed up for the deep stasis on Atlantis but now, it is looking like a certainty.

'Can it really be two thousand years?'

'It looks that way. I can't see how else Destiny can be back in our galaxy.'

'What do you think this Wraith and Traveler want?'

'I think their story holds water. I think they want to get back to the Pegasus Galaxy, but they don't possess the TGA gene and so can't control the ship. They want the chevron sequence from us to fire up the gate to get back.'

'Send then back to Pegasus?'

'I'm not losing that ship again Samantha! The Destiny is ours and we have at least two crew members with the gene who can help to fly her.'

'Our first priority_ must be_ to raise Atlantis and to find out what has happened to our planet. I'm not sure I want to send them back without more information on the situation in the Pegasus galaxy. You saw the Wraith, he does look like Michael, we have no idea what these descendants are capable of and I _will not _let either Atlantis _or_ Destiny fall into their hands.'

'They're no threat! Torr is an archaeologist, not a fighting man. He thinks we are the Ancients! He's like a Wraith version of Daniel Jackson.'

'Well if we've been asleep for two thousand years, technically we are ancient! OK, let's just take this slowly, it makes sense for you to Captain the Destiny but our first priority must be to secure and raise Atlantis and to see if Stargate Command still exists, indeed, if civilisation made it through the meteor strike...'

As the two map out a plan of action, slowly Atlantis comes back to life as Dr. Freya and John Shephard set about reactivating systems, the city awakening after it's long sleep deep in the ocean.

**In the Control Room on Atlantis**

'You know, I've been wondering about the phytoplankton.' Rodney pauses from the code he is typing into the computer console in the control room.

'The what?' John asks.

'The shiny blue stuff outside the windows!' Rodney waves in the direction of the window.

'_The blue stuff? You're thinking about the blue stuff_? Awakened by a Wraith after two thousand years in stasis, a city to raise from the depths of the ocean and no idea as to what has happened to humanity after the meteor struck and you are thinking about the blue stuff?' John replies incredulously.

'As well as everything else...Do you still feel nauseous?'

'Yes! And a whole host of other aches and pains but I'm sure it's just the after effects of such a long time in stasis, isn't that right Freya?' John asks the doctor working with Torren on the other side of the control room.

'More than likely, your inner ears are probably just taking time to adjust to movement again.'

'No, no... what I'm talking about is motion sickness. Not because we are moving but because Atlantis is. Bioluminescence in phytoplankton only occurs under stress, the blue light is triggered by the organisms response to some pressure on them! We really need to get the external monitors on the city up and running. _I have a bad feeling about this!_'

'A bad feeling about what?' Samantha asks as she and David join them in the control room.

'Rodney thinks that his motion sickness is because Atlantis is moving...' John is cut short by the whole control room shaking for a few seconds.

'That felt like an earthquake!' Samantha makes her way to where Rodney and Freya are trying to get the external monitors working. '_Oh no!_'

The camera images come up on screen showing the ocean floor around them, huge cracks are appearing across it, with vents of steam spewing out.

'That is so not good!' Rodney sighs.

'How quickly can we raise the city?' David asks Rodney, indicating to the control chair.

'As soon as all power systems are up and running. Another five minutes or so!' The room shakes again, this time stronger.

'OK, Freya you take the chair and get ready to raise the city once we have full power. John you and Torren come with me and we, we need to find the others and get supplies and weapons organised, we may have no choice but to leave through the gate!' David and John head off to find Teyla and Ronon and their two captives. Rodney stares after the them. 'Leave through the gate.. to where?'

'The ship Torr and Lilion arrived on is the Destiny, she has a Stargate, we ought to start dialling the chevrons just in case. David's just given them to me in our meeting.'

'The Destiny? The big Ancient ship with the FTL drive travelling across the universe?' Rodney brightens up at the thought.

'Yes Rodney, that Destiny. Now back to work!'

**In the armoury on Atlantis**

Teyla and Ronon are in the armoury as the first quake rocks Atlantis.

_'What was that?'_

'Don't know but whatever it was it's not good. Grab as many weapons as you can and let's head back up to the control room.' Ronon throws a blast gun to Teyla as the second quake hits, sending weapons and ammo boxes scattering across the floor.

'Are you alright?' Ronon helps Teyla back to her feet. 'That was a quake. We need to get back up to the control room.'

'What about the prisoners we can't leave them!'

'I can leave them, he looks like Michael.'

'Ronon that was two thousand years ago! It is improbable that this Wraith has anything to do with Michael. They do not strike me as our enemies, in fact they travelled here to find us.' Teyla grabs some of the fallen guns and slings them across her back. 'Give me a hand with these.'

David, John and Torren arrive and tell tehm what is happening up in the control room and they split into two groups. Teyla, Torren and John head back to pick up the prisoners, while Ronon and David search for supplies. By the time they all reach the control room, Freya is starting to raise Atlantis from the ocean floor as all around large vents open and the water starts to boil.


	7. Chapter 7

**Seven**

**The Jigsaw Pieces**

The city of Atlantis rises through the boiling waters to reach the surface of the ocean under the cover of darkness. Sensor alarms sound off all over the city as the underwater earthquake rumbles on below. Rodney desperately tries to get some sense of the scale of the seismic activity but the equipment is struggling as the readings are off the scale.

'_Rodney, _as soon as you canwith the data please!' Samantha grips the desk in front of her to keep herself on her feet as Rodney, Torren and Freya try and establish what is going on below them on the ocean floor.

'_I am trying but._.. this is unprecedented, the readings are of a magnitude that...' Rodney trails off mid sentence.

'_I have the same here._' Torren shouts across from the console he is working on. 'The whole of the Pacific plate is moving.'

'All the plates are shifting. I have seismic activity on almost every fault line!' Freya double checks her readings. 'Are you seeing what I'm seeing... the San Andreas...'

_'Rodney what is going on?'_ Samantha yells exasperated at the lack of clarity. 'Do we need to evacuate through the Stargate to Destiny? Is the planet ripping Atlantis apart?'

'We have a catastrophic volcanic event, all of the Earth's plates are shifting... we need to get Atlantis off the surface of the planet, once above the atmosphere we should be fine... we can hold the city in geostationary orbit and monitor the planet from there. The whole of the Earth's surface is reshaping...this data is extraordinary!'

'John can you fly Atlantis into the atmosphere?' Samantha

'Yes, already on it!' John sprints to the control seat and takes his place, feeling with his mind for the controls of the city.

As Atlantis rises from the ocean into the atmosphere, the surface of the planet stretches into view below, fiery red outlines running in giant jigsaw pieces against the inky night. Here and there, volcanic eruptions can be seen but no sign of any city lights or, for that matter, the light of civilisation anywhere below.

**Genii Training Camp, Athos, Pegasus Galaxy **

Scera glances at her father's face, seeing the look of self satisfaction as he takes the Wraith Tullar on a tour of the training base, as though it was he who had journeyed into the Outlaw Zone and spent a dreadful evening trying to entertain Queen Elliana in a Space dock saloon. He always took the glory for her achievements and Scera could feel the cold rage of defiance burning in her gut. She watches as Tullar inspects the ranks of Athosian fighters Occut has turned out for the tour. They are nothing without her work and her work is far further ahead than she has led everyone to believe. Her father expects her to work for nothing but his glory but Scera has other plans.

**On board Queen Elliana's Dart**

Londic stares out of the forward window at the spectacle unfolding in front of him. He had travelled with the Wraith queen far beyond the Space dock, deep into the Outlaw Zone, to a small planet with a fiery orange moon. The planet itself is shrouded with a veil of impenetrable silvery gas rings, hiding vast swathes of the surface from view.

'Welcome to my planet, Londic of the Genii, all you see before you is now Wraith territory. We will visit my hive ship and you can see the progress I have made.' Queen Elliana smiles at Londic in a manner he finds most chilling as she steers the dart towards the moon.

Hidden in the curve of the moon's shadow, Londic spots a dark shape looming. He cannot comprehend the size, a hundred times bigger at least than any other spaceship he has seen in the Galaxy. The hive ship is ominous in it's sleek shape, it's silver-blue oily sheen reflecting nothing. Londic shivers involuntarily at the sight and Queen Elliana, picking up on his fear, laughs.

'Yes, she is quite something! We will board her and you can see first hand what a beauty she is.'

'I am simply awestruck by your great achievement, my Queen.' Londic tries to cover his fear with flattery in the hopes of finding favour with the Wraith Queen, it could do no harm to gain her trust, in fact it might be something he could later use for his own advantage.

**On the city of ****Atlantis in Orbit above Earth.**

'So, the impact from the Cuiper Belt asteroid caused a catastrophic climate event and annihilated most of the southern polar regions, as predicted by my collision models...Did you know I spent almost three whole days awake working on those...anyway, in fact, the impact was marginally less than expected as the moon knocked it slightly off-course and so it was more of a glancing blow, imagine if you have a pool table with several balls strategically placed near the centre pocket ...'

'Stick to the report!' Colonel David Telford is exasperated by Rodney's ability to stray from the facts.

'Yes, sorry... where was I. The upshot is, the Earth, as I predicted, did survive the impact but a new period of volcanicity occurred as a direct result of the asteroid causing massive shifts in the plates across the earth's surface. What we experienced last night was, from all the data collected over the last few millennia by Atlantis, one of a series of mega quakes.' Rodney presents his data to everyone sitting around the meeting room table.

'Do we have any signs of life from the planet surface at all?' Colonel Sam Carter asks Torren.

'Nothing so far, Mam. But the scans are not complete and the climatic conditions are challenging to say the least.'

'Yes,' butts in Rodney, insensitive to the great loss of human life on Earth, 'High levels of methane, sulphuric acid rain, high temperatures, molten lava flows... Without it's shielding, Atlantis would have boiled us like peas in a tin...sorry, that was tactless..I just meant the Earth now resembles a period from it's prehistory.'

'OK, Rodney we get the picture. ' John Sheppard leans across the table and taps the interactive screen embedded in the table where there is a schematic of Destiny. 'This has to be our next priority, see if anyone has survived in the stasis pods on board Destiny.'

'I agree with John, we need to secure the ship.' David folds his arms and leans back in his chair. 'We may have no other option but to abandon Earth altogether.'

'The thought had crossed my mind. I want to divide us into two teams, I'll head up here with Torren, Freya and Rodney, we'll complete a thorough scan and analysis of the planet and of Atlantis itself, and David, you take John, Teyla and Ronon out to Destiny. See what shape she is in and what our options are with her.'

'And what about those two?' Teyla points to a small side room where Torr and Lilion are waiting to hear the outcome of the meeting.

'One can stay here, one can go with you. Better to split them up until we know exactly what is happening in the Pegasus Galaxy. OK, the sooner we start the sooner we can piece this whole jigsaw together. Let's fire up the Stargate and get going!' Samantha calls the meeting to close.

**Torr and Lilion in the Waiting Room**

'_This is a mistake,_ they've already locked us up once! I don't trust them.' Lilion paces up and down the small room in frustrated annoyance.

'Don't trust them or just embarrassed that the tall one could disarm you so quickly?' Replies Torr, laughing at Lilion's obvious annoyance. 'I don't think we have much option but to trust them, they outnumber us and out-gun us.'

'They have two Athosians among them. I will not trust them.'

'_Ancient_ Athosians and they seem very honourable. At least let's see what kind of plan they come up with, perhaps they will let us back through the Stargate to Pegasus.'

'And lose the Destiny? Never! You go back through if you want, that ship could stop a Genii uprising.'

'Not your conspiracy theories again, Lilion, it is technically their ship, they still have the Ancient gene and we can't control it. If you want the ship to go to the Pegasus Galaxy, you will have to work with them and convince them to go, although why you would want to leave a city as rich with technology as this I have no idea!'

'You'll see, they won't include us and we'll lose the ship and we'll be stuck here for ever.'

'I think of worse places to be marooned, Lilion.'

'In case you hadn't noticed, they have very little in the way of supplies. Wait till the food and water runs out and then see how you like this deserted city.'

Lilion's words jolt Torr out of his complacency, his bookish impracticality meant he hadn't even thought about supplies, too busy thinking of the rich history contained within the city itself. But before he can begin to concentrate on the practicalities of their predicament, Colonel Telford opens the door and calls them into the meeting room.


	8. Chapter 8

**Eight**

**The Return Home**

While Ronon, Freya and Torren start to prep for the trip to Destiny. The rest of the Atlantis crew stay in the meeting room as Samantha explains their plans to Torr and Lilion.

'Our immediate priority is to find out what has happened on Earth in the time that we have been in stasis and to secure Destiny. I appreciate that you both would like to return to the Pegasus Galaxy but we cannot take the risk of either Atlantis _or_ Destiny falling into the wrong hands until we know more...'

'So you won't let us go back through the Stargate?' Lilion interrupts Samantha.

'Not at this present time, we would like one of you to assist Colonel Telford's team on Destiny and one of you to remain here to help on Atlantis...'

'_As your prisoners?_' Lilion interrupts again.

'No, as our guests, for now.' Samantha finishes firmly. Lilion is about to answer but Torr lays a hand on her arm, sensing she is about to say something she might regret later, 'Lilion is eager to return home, we have been stuck on board Destiny for many weeks before arriving here. I am happy to remain on Atlantis, this city is extraordinary and I am sure Lilion will be happy to accompany the Colonel to Destiny. She can talk him through the modifications she has made.'

Lilion snatches her arm away from Torr and sinks low into her chair, glaring at the others sitting around the meeting room table.

'During your time on Destiny did you find any signs of life? Find any stasis chambers like the one here on Atlantis?' David asks.

'No, but we have barely scratched the surface of the ship, our first priorities were life support...'

'Fritters.' Lilion mutters under her breath.

'Pardon?' Rodney picks up on Lilion's muttering. 'You just said something, she just said something!'

'Just that there are some strange mutated versions of space rat running around the ship! I've called them Fritters.'

'Space rats?' Rodney wrinkles up his nose in disgust.

'Not scared of rats are you?' Lilion sits up, sensing a fresh quarry for teasing in Rodney. 'These are pretty big as rats go.'

'Lili, don't tease!' It is all Torr can do to keep a straight face, 'These 'rats' as she has described them are without a corporeal form, just gaseous emanations that roam the ship. They are no threat, as for stasis pods, there could well be, the ship is huge and we have not explored it all. It makes sense for Lilion to go with your team to Destiny, she is qualified in space propulsion, hydraulic engineering, bio-mechanical engineering and astrophysics... plus is pretty good with a blast gun too.'

_'Really?' _Rodney stares at Lilion while Torr reels off her impressive list of qualifications.

'_Yes! _Why, do you have a problem with that?' Lilion asks Rodney.

'No, just surprised, you don't seem very gee... I mean you don't look like you...' Rodney trails off, unable to think of a suitable way to finish his sentence.

'What he means is, you don't look geeky enough to be a math geek like him.' John finishes Rodney's thought for him. 'Excellent, we could use skills like yours on the team. You'll be with me, Colonel Telford, Teyla and Ronon.'

'Teyla?' Lilion questions.

'I have noticed already that you seem concerned about me, is there a reason?' Teyla asks, curious as to why there is an air of tension between the two of them.

'You and your son are Athosian. Athosians are...' But Torr interrupts before Lilion can insult Teyla and Torren, the last thing they need is to be antagonistic with these Ancients, now that they are just beginning to form a working relationship.

'What Lilion is referring to, is that over the last few thousand years, the Athosian people have become scattered over the galaxy, without a leader they now work mainly as mercenaries for those who would require their fighting skills. They are perhaps no longer the people you left behind all those centuries ago.'

Teyla looks shocked by the news and Lilion feels a tinge of remorse at her quick judgement of her.

'I find it hard to believe, we are.. were a peaceful and proud people. Things must be very different in the Pegasus Galaxy now.'

'I will be happy to tell you all I know of the Athosians, if you want.' Lilion smiles at Teyla in the hopes of building a friendship with her, Teyla is clearly is not like any Athosian she has met before.

'Thank you, I would like that...'

'In fact, at some point we would like to find out _all_ about Pegasus and what has happened there from you both, but for now we urgently need to find out about Earth and Destiny. Let's continue this discussion another time. We have to work to do!' Samantha stands up and straightens her jacket. Time enough for talking later.

John, Teyla, Ronon, David and Lilion all wait in the Stargate chamber while Freya dials in the chevrons for the jump to Destiny. Lilion can't help feeling a surge of excitement at the thought of stepping back through the gate. Despite her misgivings, she is beginning to like these Ancients with their military precision and sense of fair play. Maybe Torr is right and she could convince them to travel back to Pegasus once they see their options and supplies are limited on Atlantis.

As Colonel Telford and his team step through the gate, Rodney, Torren, Freya, Torr and Samantha turn their attention to scanning the fiery planet Earth below.

**On Board Destiny**

Once the Stargate closes behind them, the room is quiet and full of shadows. Lilion steps forwards and yells into the gloom. 'Anyone at home? Where are you?' And from the deep recesses of the ship a deep, unmistakeable voice replies. 'Ah! You return! I was wondering what was keeping you both.'

'_Todd?_ Is that you?' John turns around on the spot searching for where the voice is coming from, one hand on the blast gun at this side.

'John Shephard! Yes it is me. I thought never to hear your voice again. And who is with you, I have already met Colonel Telford... Teyla and Ronon! It is good to see you all again. I fear the circumstances could be better...' They watch in surprise as the body of Todd materialises in the centre of the gate room.

'Todd? Is that you?' John moves towards the imposing figure of the ancestral Wraith.

'It's a holographic bioscan of him. So, like him but not actually him.' David waves his blast gun through the image to prove his point.

'Hey! I am right here, you know, I can hear you, you don't need to speak of me in the third person... _or stick your arm through me_... Where are you all going?Are there any others, or just you?' Todd watches as they exit the gate room and head for the bridge.

**On Atlantis**

Freya checks the positional chart again, there is no mistake with the calculations. 'Rodney, I think you had better take a look at this.'

Rodney stares at the figures on the screen. 'Run them again, there must be some error, this can't be happening.'

'There is no error, I've run them twice. Look at the model predictions.' Freya and Rodney start to argue about whether the model is accurate or not.

'But this only gives us a one hour window... Colonel Carter and Torren are out in a puddle jumper. We need to call them back immediately.' Rodney and Freya rush to the communication console Torr is working on and push him to one side. 'I was just about to unlock the Ancients Library of Intergalactic Chronicles...'

'The what? How on earth have you accessed that? I haven't even heard of...no wait, no time! Sorry Torr, this is more important. Freya, you contact the jumper, I'll try and get through to Destiny. We have no time to lose.'

**On board the Puddle Jumper, over what once was the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado.**

'And you're sure this is where 'Area 52' is meant to be?' Torren glances out of the cockpit window to confirm what he is seeing on the scanners, a sea of magma and flowing rock.

'This should be the co-ordinates, unless the shifting plates have moved the mountain range, let's try a wider area, see if we can pick up a responder signal to ours. The technology should talk to each other automatically.'

'That's if Stargate Command still exists. We have had no life readings of any kind on the surface of the planet so far.' Torren shakes his head. The planet is empty and ripping itself apart. Their discussion is interrupted by a message for Freya.

'Mam, you need to return to Atlantis immediately. '

'But we haven't finished our search yet. We have two more sectors to cover. What's the problem, can't it wait?'

Freya replies firmly. 'Mam, you need to return immediately. We only have a one hour window to leave the Earth before it destroys itself.'

**On Atlantis**

'Did you just say the planet is destroying itself?' Torr stares in horror at Freya as Rodney tries to get hold of Destiny.

'Yes! The planet below is tearing itself apart. When it does, it will start a series of catastrophic collisions across the solar system, first the moon, then the nearer planets, eventually it will cause the solar system to destabilise and collapse and the asteroid belt to rip through the system... whatever happens, we need to move Atlantis out of the way, and soon.'

'I can't get through to Destiny! Have you got hold of Colonel Carter?' Rodney tries the communication channels again. 'There must be some problem on Destiny with their systems.'

'Oh, um, we might have rerouted the system to provide communications throughout the ship, so we didn't get lost.' Torr winces at the thought. 'Sorry. We weren't really expecting anyone to contact us in FTL.'

'Great! Now we can't warn them or move Atlantis anywhere near them to get a puddle jumper there because of the Stargates!'

'How about if we go through the gate to them?' Torr asks.

'No time. Those figures are only a prediction, a best guess, the planet could rip apart at any moment.' Rodney tries the Destiny one more time but is no good, he gets no reply.

Samantha and Torren land the puddle jumper back in its bay and sprint down to the control room where the other three are trying to work out a way to get the message to Destiny but there seems to be no way of accessing the ship from Atlantis.

'_We need to leave Earth, the moon and it's environs well behind but that will bring us dangerously close to Destiny and maybe trigger another gate related event!'_ Rodney can feel himself beginning to shout.

'Calm down, Rodney. Freya, you and Torren work on trying to get a message through to Destiny, have we time to fire up the Stargate?'

Rodney shakes his head. 'There's no guarantee that anyone is still in the gate room on Destiny.'

'Any sign of Stargate Command?' Rodney asks.

'No, nothing. We can only hope they left the planet before...' Samantha trails off. 'Can we move Atlantis the other way, further in towards the sun and away form Destiny?'

'No, there's no way of knowing how the city will hold up to the extra solar exposure, it was designed to be on a very specific planet and under water. We don't even know how much power the city has left...'

'Can the city travel at FTL speed?' Torr asks.

'Yes, the Ancients city-ships all could. That's how we arrived back at Earth.' Rodney replies annoyed at being interrupted for such a basic question.

'Then jump the city to FTL and take Atlantis back to New Lantea. Away from the danger in this system.'

'And what about Destiny? We can't leave them without letting them know, what about when they travel through the gate... oh, of course, the gate won't dial in FTL, they would have to wait till we arrive at...' Rodney answers his own question.

'They will see what happens to earth and will work out where Atlantis has gone, Lili will work it out. From what I can see, your home world is finished and there is nothing for you here. At least there is food and water and a familiar planet in New Lantea. It's time for Atlantis to return home.'


	9. Chapter 9

**Nine**

**'It's Our Destiny'**

John Sheppard tries to access the controls of the ship on the bridge through the interface chair but they are somehow all wrong.

'Have you got access yet?' Col Telford asks, impatient to get the ship under his command.

'Well, it's all a bit screwy... not wired up right, as though she's been messed with...' John tries again but is having a hard time getting anything coherent from the systems. 'Like she's rewritten all her commands and...' He can feel a surge of great resistance from within the ship, as though it is deliberately trying to block his mind.

'Is this something you have done?' David asks Lilion directly.

'No, we can't access her the way you can... but Destiny has been travelling for a long time, maybe she's just evolved.'

'_Evolved?' _David is sceptical at her answer. 'How about Todd's holographic computer programme, could that have effected the systems?'

'I_ can hear you know_!' Todd re-materialises in the bridge room and glares at David. 'And no, I haven't affected any of the controls John is currently trying to access. My programme's core function is to preserve my identity, any other functionality is very limited. This ship is far too smart to allow me full access. Although it did occur to me that it is almost human in its ability to...'

'How about the previous crew, did they have the Ancient gene?' Ronon cuts through Todd's long-winded explanation. 'Could they have booby-trapped it so it didn't fall into enemy hands?' Ronon turns to Teyla for support for his idea but she seems pre-occupied with her own thoughts.

'I think we should try and search the ship for any stasis pods, just in case we can't get control and have to abandon her... can you find any signs of life John?' Something on board the ship is making Teyla very uneasy. Not Wraith, but something similar, her senses are telling her there is a very real threat. 'I am not convinced that we are alone.'

'That makes sense, can you find any sections of the ship that may hold stasis pods?' David acknowledges Teyla's suggestion.

'I'm having a hard time trying to get into the systems, let alone find any kind of map for you to follow... it's as though there has been someone else in here...argghh! ' John slumps forward, out of the chair as he passes out from the strain of trying to gain control of Destiny.

'John!' Teyla and Lilion rush to catch him as he falls. John comes back round again and shakes his head, trying to clear it. 'It's not just me in there, someone is trying to stop me, someone who has managed to override the Ancient gene and is v_ery possessive_ about the ship! Ouch, my head, worse than brain freeze.'

'Brain freeze? What kind of weapon is this?' Lilion asks, intrigued.

'No, no it's when you eat ice-cream...never mind...another time. OK, help me up big guy and I'll have another go.' Ronon helps John to his feet.

'I think I know what the problem is,' David has a sinking feeling at the thought just occurring to him, 'the SG crew previously on board Destiny had a scientist called Dr. Nicholas Rush, he tried to access the ship through the chair once, without success we all thought but maybe... if some part of him is in the system, he would want the ship for himself.'

'OK, so I'm looking for a Dr. Rush. Let's see if I can find him, this could take some time.' John raises his eyebrows and tries the chair again.

Teyla is impatient to get to the bottom of what is irking her. 'Look, I am sensing something on board, not a Wraith but something like it. Why don't Ronon and I start a search of the ship. If John finds anything useful, you can let us know over the communication system.'

John nods at Teyla and says to David 'You know, Sir, if her spidey-sense is tingling, you should take notice.'

David nods at Teyla's suggestion. 'Lilion, you stay with me and John for now.'

'I can accompany you if you want, Teyla, I can open doors if that is useful.' Todd moves towards a locked door and waves his hand in a theatrical way as the door opens.

'How do we know you won't just lock us in somewhere?' Ronon asks, levelling his blast gun at the hologram.

'Don't shoot!.. I've tried that, it didn't work out so well.' Lilion warns Ronon.

Teyla lays a hand on Ronon's arm. 'You are forgetting, if Todd hadn't sacrificed his life, we would all have been dead long ago. Perhaps this time round, we should all try a bit more trust. If I tell you the direction that I am sensing something, can you open the doors in that direction?' Teyla asks Todd.

'Certainly. Lead the way!' Todd bows and allows Teyla to go first through the door he opened.

**On Atlantis**

Torr switches his gaze from Samantha back to Rodney then back to Samantha again. These Ancients were taking along time to process his suggestion. The silence stretching out between them all is suddenly punctuated by a siren, the city's alarms triggered by the unstable planet below. The sound jolts Samantha back to the reality of the situation, Torr is right, Earth is no longer their home, if Stargate Command had survived the asteroid hit two thousand years ago and managed to organise an evacuation of the planet it would not be to anywhere in this solar system and they have no clue as where to start looking, at least New Lantea is a familiar and safe place for the city.

'Let's do this.' She replies grimly. 'Freya set a destination to New Lantea, Pegasus Galaxy, jump to FTL as soon as the city is ready.. and Rodney_, see if you can turn that damn siren off!'_

The city of Atlantis sits in orbit for a minute or two more and then the FTL engines fire up and she jumps away just as the Earth cataclysmically explodes, hurling molten debris into the moon and knocking it out of orbit onto a path of destruction for the whole solar system.

**On board Destiny**

Teyla's instincts are telling her that they are very close to whatever it is that's worrying her. She raises her hand and both Ronon and Todd stop behind her. She pulls out her blast gun and whispers to them 'Whatever it is I am sensing, it is very near.'

They have been walking for about an hour through the corridors of Destiny and have arrived in a desolate, fire burnt stretch. Scorch marks run along the twisted bulkheads of the corridor and the floor is littered with blast rubble. Ahead of them the corridor ends in a sealed blast door that has taken heavy fire.

'It's behind that door.' Whispers Teyla, moving cautiously forward.

'I am afraid I cannot open that door, the ship won't allow it.' Todd replies loudly.

'Ssshh!' Ronon goes to move Todd out of the way of the door but his hands fall through the hologram and he stumbles forward, falling onto the blast door with a loud resounding thud that echoes through the corridor.

Todd stands with his hands on his hips and shakes his head at him. 'And you want me to be quiet, so much for the element of surprise!'

'I keep forgetting that you are just a hologram...' But Teyla interrupts them. 'Listen! Do you hear that?' From behind the blast door can be heard a low roaring sound, like waves on a beach.'What is that?'

'Only one way to find out!' Ronon regains his composure and raises his gun level to where the control panel should be for the door. ' When I fire, get ready to run.' Teyla hides on the other side of door, gun drawn ready as Ronon starts a countdown from three.

'Wait! I can cause a distraction.' Todd runs back down the corridor and stands waiting for whatever is behind the door.

**In the Bridge Room on Destiny**

Slowly John is beginning to piece together a coherent image of the ship as he tries to gain control of her while sitting in the interface chair. As he works through the systems, Destiny recognises the Ancient gene and starts to work with him. He finds Dr. Nicholas Rush's ego sitting in a computer simulated version of the view deck.

'Hi, I'm guessing you are Dr. Rush. My name's..'

'I know who you are, John Sheppard. What do you want with my ship, now..._I'm guessing _that you are trying to take over _my_ Destiny?'

'Well, technically it's our Destiny, Stargate Command's ship...'

'Don't try and be smart with me. I've seen how she responds to you. You have something she understands, I have been here a very long time, I know how she ticks.'

'Yes, yes you have. In fact for over two thousand years. She's made it home to earth and...'

'I know, that's why I'm here, watching, ringside seat.' Dr, Rush interrupts him, indicating to the windows.

'Watching what?' John glances up at the view-deck windows to see a molten, boiling planet beginning to break apart.'

'The end of the world.'

'The end of..?'

'Yes, that _is_ Earth.' Dr. Rush reads his thoughts. 'Well, a complicated computer rendering of it, but yes. The end of the world is nigh.' he adds with a hollow laugh.

John Sheppard rips his subconscious away from the controls of the ship and leaps from the interface chair making both David and Lilion jump. 'Earth!' He yells and starts running to Stargate room. 'I've just seen the Earth explode, we have to warn Atlantis!'

**Behind the Blast Door**

Ronon fires a single well-aimed shot at the control panel junction and the heavy blast door starts to slide open. From inside the sound of roaring becomes louder. Both Ronon and Teyla hold their positions each side of the door while Todd stands and stares into the room beyond, almost unable to comprehend what he is seeing.

What he, Torr and Lilion thought were incorporeal mutations of space rats were clearly anything but. Coalescing into huge, shifting forms, these fearsome creatures are swarming over row upon row of stasis pods, rasping their long teeth over the cases, making the glass shriek and roar. Inside the pods it is clear that the bodies are long since dead and desiccated into little more than dust and ashes. Here and there, the stasis pods are cracked and open and the contents presumable eaten by these vampirical creatures. For a split second they carry on with their repetitive behaviour and then, as one, they turn, notice the open door and Todd standing in the corridor outside.

With a shriek the creatures pour towards the open door as Todd yells at Ronon and Teyla to set their blast guns to burn whatever emerges through the door. As the first creature exits the door Ronon and Teyla start firing and do not stop till every single one of the strange entities is piled up in a smoking cloud of burning ash.

'What are they?' Teyla drops to her knees, exhausted from the effort and coughing with the smoke.

'What did Lilion call them? Fritters? They certainly are now.' Ronon sits down next to her, his throat dry from the smoke and heat and kicks at the ashes.' A small cloud rises up and then sinks again.

'What we saw must have been small emanations of the larger form of these creatures, perhaps the young. They gave no sign that they were …' Todd shudders and walks into the stasis pod chamber.

'I am not sensing any more. We must have killed them all.' Teyla gets to her feet and follows Todd. 'It looks as though no one survived, trapped in here with those... things.'

The three of them check every stasis pod in the room but there are no survivors.

'There may be other stasis chambers, this is a big ship.' Ronon indicates back to the corridor. ' We ought to continue our search. There's nothing more we can do here.'

Teyla nods in agreement and they head on back up the corridor and find another route back towards the ship's bridge. 'We will have to have a proper burial for those poor souls, I will ask Colonel Telford about organising it later.'

'And a clear out of the rest of these.' Ronon strides ahead, blasting away at any small fritter that should happen to drift into the corridor.

**In the Gate Room**

John dials in the chevron code for Atlantis but the gate does not connect. He retries but gets nothing. 'Damn!' He thumps the console in annoyance.

'What exactly did you see?' asks Lilion and John explains again his virtual meeting with the ego of Dr. Rush and the view of Earth exploding. 'But you didn't see Atlantis?'

'It must have been destroyed in the blast.' John shakes his head, appalled at the thought. That's why we can't dial the gate.'

'Not necessarily.' Lilion briskly moves to the nearest console table. 'You also can't dial the gate when travelling FTL. I calibrated some long range sensors before we left for Atlantis so Todd could keep an eye on us...' Lilion spends a few minutes calling up a 3D computer model of the solar system. 'So, this is us here... and this is Earth. Now if I play back the recording from the last twenty four hours...there! That's Atlantis above the planet.'

They watch as the planet starts to explode and, just before the final explosion, Atlantis disappears.

_'There!' _David points to where Atlantis was. 'It just disappeared.'

'Jumped to FTL speed. My guess is they are headed for New Lantea. We should follow them' Lilion adds.

'Wait a minute... that's a big presumption on your behalf why New Lantea?' David asks immediately suspicious of her motives to get them to return to the Pegasus galaxy.

'This system will become more and more unstable as the debris field from Earth spreads out and hits other planets, it has already sent the moon off into a new orbit. The solar system is no longer habitable, where else is there to go that you all know so well?'Lilion finishes her reasoning triumphantly, while in the back of her mind is the thought that Destiny will soon be in the Pegasus galaxy.

'Well, you can't reason with the logic.' John chimes in.

'We have no idea what awaits us in the Pegasus galaxy. I think we should at least wait till we can contact Atlantis.' David replies.

'Perhaps I can put your mind to rest, Colonel Telford. New Lantea is indeed, uninhabited and still pretty much as you left it. My ship had lain undiscovered there for two thousand years. You will be safe there.' Todd re-materialises back in the gate room.

'Well we can't go back to New Lantea because of the Stargates... where are Teyla and Ronon?' David looks around for the other two.

'Ah, they are heading for the bridge. We found a stasis room but alas, all were long dead. It turns out those fritters are not quite as harmless as we thought!'

**Back in the Bridge Room on Destiny**

'How many weeks will it take for them to arrive back at New Lantea?' Colonel Telford is pacing up and down the bridge room trying to formulate a plan from the destruction of Earth and the sudden disappearance of Atlantis. '...and if we leave now, we will arrive pretty much at the same time as them. But we can't get too close to New Lantea, assuming that is their final destination, because of the gates.'

'I can call up a map of the galaxy for you, there are many planets nearby that are no longer inhabited.' Lilion tries to be helpful.

'We would want somewhere isolated and off the map...'

'Well, there is always the Outlaw zone. It's a long way from New Lantea, a long way from anywhere. I would doubt there are any stargates there.' Lilion calls up a virtual map of the Pegasus galaxy on one of the consoles. 'That's the Outlaw Zone, there. It's been uninhabited for hundreds of years. Nothing happens out there at all. It's about as off the map as you can get.'

'Sounds like a plan. We can contact Atlantis as soon as we arrive.' John examines the map of the Outlaw Zone. 'Teyla, Ronon, you happy with this?'

'It will be good to return to Pegasus, there seems to be nothing for us here now and Torren is on Atlantis, I would prefer to be near him.' Teyla smiles at Lilion, knowing she is keen to return to her home.

'Ronon?'

'Time to go home.'

'Do I get a say in this?' Todd asks. David laughs. 'I guess you are going wherever the ship goes, so no, not really. Plot a course for the Outlaw Zone, Pegasus Galaxy, John can you get Destiny to jump to FTL?'

John sits in the interface chair. 'Yes, Sir.'

Destiny's engines fire up and the ship jumps to FTL, skimming through the universe once more to Return to the Pegasus Galaxy. Behind them, the moon spins on a collision course with Mars as the molten remnants of Earth swirl into new formations across the solar system.


End file.
